Toy Hunt: Batman Slot Car Fun Time

Well, this was an unexpected find and purchase. Just yesterday my girlfriend let me know that a Marshall’s by me was closing and they were having 20% clearance off of everything. Hoping to pick up some new shoes (they didn’t have anything good), I wandered over to the toy aisle. Almost buried behind several boxes I found this puppy:

It’s a slot car set called The Riddler Revenge based on the 1960s Batman TV show! Now normally I’m not into such things, though I do have some fond memories of a Richard Petty slot car set I got one Christmas. I played with that thing until both cars had their motors wear down to nothing. That memory combined with savings combined with Batman, wow what a tempting offer.

The set was marked down to about 70 bucks from the suggested retail of 100 plus, and I saved 20% off that. It’s selling on Amazon for 120 and it sold out on Big Bad Toy store at 117. Despite the fact this is much more than I should be spending on anything, I’ve seen these sets sell on eBay for 90 and above. The bargain hunter in me was screaming at me to buy the Batman slot car set or regret passing on it forever.

The Riddler Revenge has a lot going for it. The most obvious thing is the sweet ass 60s era Batmobile. The track has the cool Gotham city cut outs. And overall, the set seems to be a much higher quality than the usual ones I’ve seen at mass retail stores. Of course, I haven’t put it together and raced yet, so I could be wrong. It also seems to have a lot more track than my old Richard Petty set, so that’s a cool bonus.

The second car in the set, the Riddler’s van isn’t that impressive. The problem here is that while Batman has always had an awesome vehicle his enemies really don’t have anything as cool to go up against him. While looking into this set I see that there’s another set called “Pursuit of The Penguin” that has Penguin in another van. Van vs. a rocket powered car? How is that even a contest? Maybe I’ll go into one of those “normie” hobby stores and find some sort of car that will be able to give Batman a run for his money. The company that put this thing out has also made Speed Racer and Dukes of Hazard sets, so maybe I’ll be able to pick up one of those signature cars to take on Batman someday.

And let me take a moment and say, “The Riddler Revenge” is certainly an odd name. Sounds like a Japanese translation. Shouldn’t it be, “The Riddler’s Revenge”?